Gossip

So, is Airgo's new WLAN technology 802.11n, or something else?

Belkin has already assured NewsWireless that its "pre-n" technology is not intended* to mislead punters into thinking that it's an 802.11n standard. Excellent! - so what does the maker of the chips in Belkin's WLAN products think?

A clue can be found this week in Grand Central: Airgo, the maker of the chips, is doing a New York demonstration of Belkin gear, together with Belkin, "showcasing their award-winning True MIMO wireless networking technology that offers ten times the performance of competitive home networking products in New York City's Grand Central Terminal from November 8th to 11th."

And this, coming so soon after the announcement of Netgear's new WLAN gear using the same chips, means?

"Airgo is the only company to conceive, develop and deliver MIMO (multiple input/multiple output) OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing), the base technology in the 802.11n next generation wireless LAN standard," says the announcement.

Does the announcement make it clear that this is not 802.11n?

"The number of wireless consumer electronics devices is growing dramatically and Wi-Fi chips will soon be a core feature in high-definition televisions, portable media players, PDAs and game consoles. The MIMO technology behind the 802.11n allows for increased bandwidth and range capabilities standard, opening the door to the digital home."

We'll call that "not entirely clear" shall we? Could it be that, having won the Popular Science "Best of What's New award in the computing category" for their AGN100 True MIMO-based wireless router, Airgo doesn't particularly care what the WiFi Alliance thinks any more?

"Best of What's New is the ultimate Popular Science accolade, representing a year's worth of work evaluating thousands of products," says Mark Jannot, editor of Popular Science. "These awards honor innovations that not only influence the way we live today, but that change the way we think about the future." And the way the IEEE views standards, perhaps?

Maybe. Maybe not... try this: "Airgo is the only company to conceive, develop and deliver MIMO (multiple input/multiple output) OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing), the base technology in the 802.11n next generation wireless LAN standard." Wait till Broadcom's lawyers get hold of that...

* Belkin's official statement: The Pre-N name is not intended to imply 802.11n standard interoperability. Rather, it represents products that offer consumers dramatically improved benefits over the latest wireless technology. Those benefits include 800% wider coverage, 600% faster speeds than 802.11g, and the ability to enhance the performance of any existing 802.11b and g standard based devices

Tags: MIMO, 802.11n, WLAN, Belkin, Airgo, WiFi, WiFi Alliance